Harry's Missed Halloween Party
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: Harry is feeling unwell with an ear infection and tries to hide from everyone. What'll happen if he misses the Halloween Party in his third year with Sirius Black around? Just a longer drabble I wrote because I felt like Harry today. AU, sick!Harry


**Harry's Missed Halloween Party**

Harry dragged himself up the stairs to the common room after an early morning Quidditch practise in the rain and a long, hot shower, in which he tried to get warm for the first time in days. For a few days now he was suffering from a sore throat and a stuffed nose, but today, especially after his Quidditch practise, he was feeling absolutely horrible.

Glad that the others had already left for breakfast, he made his way up to the dormitory and threw himself on his bed. '_No; Hermione will only wake me up and make me study_,' he mused tiredly, before he scrambled out of bed, took his invisibility cloak, put it on, threw a Silencing charm around his bed, and lay down again.

Harry spent the whole day in bed, feeling worse by the hour. '_Strange that Hermione and Ron didn't even come to look for me_,' he mused, before he remembered that everyone had gone to Hogsmeade that day. '_Oh, thank God, then I'll have a quiet day_,' he thought gratefully. '_If only Madam Pomfrey was there; I'd willingly stay in the hospital wing today_.' However, he knew that Madam Pomfrey was ill with a bad case of the wizard's flu and Professor Snape was looking after the Mediwitch and the sick students in the hospital wing. His ears were incredibly sore, and he felt extremely hot and cold at the same time, not considering the splitting headache he already had endured over the last days.

Later, his friends entered the dormitory in obvious search for him, but at that time, Harry had finally drifted off into an exhausted sleep.

"I wonder where Harry is," Hermione worriedly said to Ron.

"Well, I'm sure he'll show up for the Halloween party," Ron replied, and Harry's two friends left the dormitory.

"Ms. Granger, Mr. Weasley, do you know where Mr. Potter is?" Professor McGonagall asked them in a stern voice when the feast began and there was still no sign of their best friend, who had already missed breakfast and lunch.

"We have no idea, Professor. We haven't seen him today at all," Hermione replied, throwing their Head of House a concerned look. "I know that he wasn't feeling well over the last days though," she added as an afterthought.

"Maybe he went to the hospital wing then," the professor mused aloud and returned to the teachers' table to ask her colleague.

However, Snape didn't see Harry either, and McGonagall decided to look for the missing third year. She first climbed up to the Gryffindor tower and asked the Fat Lady, "Have you perhaps seen Harry Potter?"

The portrait remained pensive for a minute, before the Fat Lady replied thoughtfully, "I think I saw him this morning come back from Quidditch, but since then I haven't seen him. He should be inside."

The professor entered the common room, frowning at the chaos that her students had made, when they had excitedly returned from Hogsmeade, and headed up to the third year boys' dormitory, which seemed as empty as the common room. However, just when she turned around to leave the room, from the corner of her eyes she noticed a small movement on Harry's bed. Stepping over to the bed, she saw that even if she couldn't see anyone lying in the bed, the covers were formed as if a student was lying underneath. She carefully sat down on the edge of the bed and hesitantly extended a hand to feel what was under the covers.

Harry woke up from his light slumber with a jolt when he all of a sudden felt his invisibility cloak being pulled away. He lazily opened his achy eyes, noticing terrified that his Head of House was sitting right next to him. '_Finite Incantatem_,' he thought, using his wish magic to cancel the Silencing spell around his bed, before he croaked, "Professor."

"Harry, could you please explain what's wrong? Why are you hiding from everyone?" the professor asked gently but with a stern expression on her face.

"Sorry, Professor, but I wasn't feeling well, and I didn't want Hermione to make me study today," Harry blurted out, causing the teacher to frown at his hoarse voice.

She carefully extended a hand to his forehead, letting out a gasp at the heat he radiated. "Harry, you're ill. Why didn't you go to the hospital wing?"

"Because Madam Pomfrey is not there this week and Snape hates me so much that he would only ridicule me," Harry replied miserably.

'_That might be true_,' Minerva mused, pondering what to do with the sick child. '_If I take him to the hospital wing, I can still ask Severus to check on him later on if necessary_,' she finally decided. "All right, Harry; since we don't know what is wrong with you and don't want to get all your roommates sick, I'm going to take you to the hospital wing. Since no other students are there at the moment, Professor Snape won't be there either. However, I can check on you and give you at least a fever reducer. We'll see what we can do to make you feel better."

"Kay," Harry mumbled, scrambling out of his bed. As soon as he stood up, he felt so dizzy that he threw the teacher a grateful look when she reached out and supported him firmly.

"It's all right, Harry, just lean onto me," the teacher told him gently and slowly walked through the common room with Harry heavily leaning onto her arm, watching the violently shivering child in concern.

They had to call the Fat Lady three times, before the portrait finally opened, revealing a strange man standing in front of the portrait.

"Sirius Black!" McGonagall gasped, pulling her wand in the blink of an eye.

"Please wait and listen to me, Professor," the man pleaded, throwing both arms into the air. "Look, I don't have a wand. I can't do anything to you. Listen please, I'm innocent. It was Peter. He was the Secret Keeper, and he's here. The other boy's rat, that's Peter. You must make him transform back and then you'll know."

"Do you have any proof why we should believe that story, Mr. Black?" McGonagall asked in an icy voice that made Harry shiver even more.

"Scabbers is missing a toe, and from Pettigrew they only found a finger," Harry suddenly blurted out, ending up in a coughing fit.

"Exactly," Black agreed, before he asked in genuine concern, "Are you all right, Harry?"

"No Mr. Black, Mr. Potter is very ill, and I have to put him to bed this instant," Minerva replied, her wand still trained on her former student.

"Professor, get the rat and force it to transform back. You can call me through Crookshanks, the cat of Harry's friend. He knows where to find me. I'll be waiting." With that, the man transformed into a black dog and ran away.

"The grim," Harry gasped.

"Let's get you to bed, Harry," Minerva replied, worriedly noticing that Harry seemed to be getting worse by the minute. She led him down the stairs to the hospital wing and made him lie down on the bed nearest to Poppy's office, gently tucking him in.

"Thanks," Harry mumbled, absolutely relieved to be able to lie down.

The teacher fetched a thermometer and a wet cloth from the office and stuck the thermometer under Harry's tongue, causing the child's teeth to chatter at the cold touch. After a few seconds, it flared orange, displaying the number '39.4' (103).

"Harry, can you tell me what exactly is wrong?" McGonagall asked gently, while she helped Harry sit up and drink a fever reducing potion.

"My ears and my throat are sore," Harry croaked, causing the teacher to lit the tip of her wand and examine his mouth and ears.

"I believe you have an ear and throat infection, but I'd prefer to let Professor Snape check on you." Seeing that Harry was on the verge of drifting off to sleep again, obviously feeling too bad to contradict, she added, "I'll go to the Great Hall and send him up here."

The next few times Harry woke up, his Head of House was always sitting on the edge of his bed. Each time, she took his temperature and made him drink two or sometimes three potions, before she bathed his hot face with a cool cloth until he fell back to sleep. At some stage, Harry thought he saw Madam Pomfrey at his side instead of Professor McGonagall, but he wasn't sure if it wasn't only the high fever that made him see things. '_Like the fight between the lion and the black dog that I saw the other night_,' he mused, before he sank back into his fevered dreams.

Only a week later, Harry noticed that he felt slightly better when he woke up to voices right next to his bed. He lazily opened his eyes, seeing Professor McGonagall and Sirius Black sitting next to him, talking animatedly.

"Hello Harry!" Sirius blurted out. "Are you finally awake?"

Harry uncertainly rubbed his eyes, giving the teacher a questioning glance.

"Harry, you've been ill with the wizard's flu for a whole week. In the meantime, we found out that your godfather, Sirius Black, was indeed innocent. He is free, and he'd like to get to know you better and perhaps become your new guardian if you wish so," Professor McGonagall explained gently, causing Harry to wonder if he was still delirious.

However, when his godfather spent the whole weekend in the hospital wing with him, entertaining Harry whenever he was awake, Harry noticed soon that Sirius was very much alive and an extremely funny godfather.

When Madam Pomfrey finally released Harry a few days later, Sirius invited Harry to spend the winter holidays with him.

"Thanks a lot Sirius, I'd love to spend the holidays with you," Harry replied gratefully. He slowly walked back to the Gryffindor common room after more than a week of absence, feeling happier than he had ever felt before.

**The End**

_

* * *

There will be a sequel, "Severus' disturbed winter holidays," in which Severus gets the ear infection from Harry and tries to hide it from Poppy and Minerva._

_I am not a native speaker of English. So please excuse my mistakes – or tell me, so that I can correct them!_

_All recognizable characters belong to Mrs. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


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